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National Fire Plan Success Story

Park Supports Department with Rural Fire Assistance Grant
Tonto National Monument, Arizona
National Fire Plan - Community Assistance
2011

Students practicing a television interview.
Interview during simulation exercise.

Simulation exercise.
Simulation exercise.

Paul Whitcomb Incident Commander addressing class.
Paul Whitcomb Incident Commander addressing class from an IC's perspective.

Cadre in front with February 2011 students behind.
Cadre in front with February 2011 students behind.

A veteran interagency cadre was reunited under a new course coordinator, Jennifer Chapman, Fire Communication/Education Specialist from Point Reyes National Seashore. This is the seventh year the teaching cadre has offered the course in northern California. It wasn’t offered in 2010 because the previous course coordinator, Leona Rodreick USFS Public Affairs Specialist on the Lassen National Forest had transferred to Elko, Nevada with the Bureau of Land Management. Course instructors included Lee Anne Shramel Taylor, Public Affairs Officer, Plumas National Forest, Jeff Fontana, Public Affairs Officer Northern California Bureau of Land Management, Dan Merrit, Timber Measurements Specialist Lassen National Forest and Scott Isaacson, Fire Communication/Education Specialist from Lassen Volcanic National Park.

The course originated from a need to train local information resources to serve the Susanville Interagency Fire Center’s response area. It has also become the primary S203 course serving northern California. The course is taught at the Lassen National Forest headquarters office in Susanville. The first day ends with a trip to the Susanville Interagency Fire Center. The Center features an information office used during the fire season and a large dispatch center which handles emergency 911 calls, medicals, search and rescue, fire, as well as dispatching personnel to incidents occurring out of the area. The dispatch center assists other agencies, covers 23 county fire departments encompassing an area of approximately 9 million acres.

The course is very interactive and allows students to practice live interviews in addition to recorded TV and radio interviews. The students are also involved in myriad team assignments with an elaborate final simulation exercise on Thursday. Dan Merrit works with the local high school drama department and coordinates with the students and faculty to provide many of the role players in the simulation. Additional experienced agency personnel come in to assist the cadre with evaluations of the four team’s performances during the simulation. This year Gary Wuchner, Fire Communication adn Education Specialist, Yosemite National Park, Stanton Florea, Public Affairs Specialist USFS Region 5, and Heidi Perry Public Affairs Officer, Lassen National Forest was among the extra resources on hand to assist on simulation day.

Twenty-two students from the U.S. Forest Service, BLM, NPS, and BIA successfully completed the course in February 2011.

Contact: Scott Isaacson, Fire Communication and Education Specialist, (530) 595-6163